


Whose Beauty Is Past Change

by GnomeIgnominious



Series: Scenes from a reconciliation [3]
Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Coming Out, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 09:00:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29882184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GnomeIgnominious/pseuds/GnomeIgnominious
Summary: Millie comes out to Douglas.
Series: Scenes from a reconciliation [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2197014
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Whose Beauty Is Past Change

**Author's Note:**

> Millie is Douglas's younger daughter, who lives in Barrow-in-Furness with her mother, step-father and three younger step-siblings.

Douglas first suspects something’s up when Millie spontaneously volunteers to do the washing up straight after dinner, rather than disappearing off to her room as usual.

He sits back and listens to her chatter away about school and her friends and thinks it’s probably a precursor to her bringing up the school ski trip which he knows is on the horizon. Douglas knows Emily can’t afford it and he’s been waiting for Millie to ask him to pay for it for a couple of weeks now.

Millie stacks the last few plates in the rack and comes to sit down at the table again, opposite him.

“Dad,” she starts. “Can I ask you something?”

Douglas is immediately worried. Millie’s tone is far more serious than any ski trip announcement would merit.

“Of course,” he says. “Anything.”

Her next few words come out in a rush. “Would you be upset if I told you that I don’t really fancy Josh any more but Katie instead?”

Douglas is momentarily lost for words. He can feel something very warm rising in his chest.

Millie hurries on. “It’s ok if you don’t like it, I mean, I haven’t told Katie yet, or anyone really, except Verity and she told me you might want to know, but if you don’t then that’s ok, we can forget about it –”

“Millie, Millie, darling, it’s all right.” Douglas reaches over to squeeze her hand. “I truly don’t mind if you fancy Katie, or Josh, or anyone else. Well, maybe not Josh, specifically, if I had a say.”

Millie relaxes a little. “Really?”

“Really.” Douglas puts as much sincerity into the word as possible. “I honestly thought you were going to ask me for money, buttering me up by doing the washing up and then sitting down so seriously like that.”

Millie laughs. “Well… if you really don’t mind, can I go on the ski trip?”

“Is Katie going?” Douglas waggled his eyebrows. “Let me know the details, I’m sure your mum and I can work it out between us.”

Later on, they’re sitting on the sofa, a cup of tea each and one of Millie’s favourite reality shows on the telly. When it cuts to an ad break Millie pulls out her phone.

“Um, so, what I was talking about before… I think it’s called bisexuality? When you like people of the same gender and other genders,” she says, fumbling with her phone. “I wrote down some facts, if you want to read about it.” She passes her phone over, the notes app open.

Douglas doesn’t have his reading glasses and the words are blurry.

“So I think that’s me. I think I’m… I could be bisexual.” Millie’s voice sounds tenative and unsure, perhaps still waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Have you heard of it before?”

Douglas slips his arm round her and thinks of what he said to Verity, more than a year ago now, sitting in this exact same position, his heart full.

“I have, sweetheart.” He huffs out a laugh. “I think it runs in the family.”

“What? You mean… Mum?”

“No.” He knows that Emily will kill him for this… and God, what on earth will she say to Millie if Millie tells her? He squeezes her shoulders. “I mean me.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Wow.”

They sit in silence for a long while, until the next ad break.

“D'you think you’ll tell your mum?” Douglas asks.

“I don’t know. I mean… I’m not sure what she’ll think. Do you think I should?”

Douglas sighs. He really wants to be honest with Millie and explain how her mother reacted when he came out to her, but he also does not want to inadvertently drive a wedge between Millie and her mum by rehashing a two decade old argument or by encouraging secrets to be kept. Perhaps Emily won’t mind so much given it’s her child rather than her husband?

Should he talk to Emily before Millie does? That seems unfair too. It’s not his news to share, after all.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what she might say,” he says carefully.

“Well, how did she react when you told her?”

“You know we used to argue a lot, sweetheart,” Douglas says heavily.

“Still do,” she mutters.

“Yes. Well. It was a recurring topic, I’m afraid.”

Millie sighs and sniffs and leans over to rest her head on his shoulder. Douglas is struck by how long it is since he last saw her cry, how she’s approaching sixteen and so grown up now.

“We’ll work it out together, ok?” he whispers, and hugs her as tight as he can.


End file.
